Pinot gris/grigio

Here’s how I like my pinot grigio: lean and lithe, bright and vibrant, yet with a winsome, pretty touch. The example in question is the Marco Felluga “Mongris” Pinot Grigio 2015, from Italy’s far northeastern Collio region, which shares a border with Slovenia. Collio is a version of the Italian word colli, which means “hills,” this rolling terrain being composed of layers of sandstone, limestone and clay once the ocean floor. Made all in stainless steel, the Marco Felluga “Mongris” Pinot Grigio 2015 offers a pale gold color and enticing aromas of acacia and heather, green apple and pear, seashell and salt marsh; a few moments in the glass bring in notes of roasted lemon and almond skin. It’s a spare and bracing pinot grigio, crystalline in its chiming acidity and scintillating flinty minerality and its finish of grapefruit pith and lime peel, though tasty with faceted citrus and stone-fruit flavors. 13 percent alcohol. Drink through 2018 with seafood risottos, grilled fish (preferably right on the beach) and fresh oysters. Excellent. About $18, representing Good Value.

Cantina Tramin is a cooperative of local growers in Trentino-Alto Adige that was founded in 1889 and comprises a total of 575 acres among its members. The wine considered today, the Tramin Pinot Grigio 2015, Südtiral-Alto Adige, derives from a 43-acre vineyard whose vines range from 12 to 42 years old, lying at altitudes of 660 to 1,320 feet elevation. Winemaker for Tramin is Willi Stürz. Made completely in stainless steel, the Tramin Pinot Grigio 2015 is a superior rendition of a much abused grape. The color is very pale gold; aromas of almond and almond blossom, roasted lemon and baked pear, heather and a touch of loam are immediately evident in the attractive bouquet. A lovely, lithe and supple texture enfolds a soft talc-like element cut through and made lively by bright acidity; there’s real body and character here, with a few minutes in the glass bringing in notes of smoke and straw, spare glimmers of fresh and dried stone-fruit and an encompassing saline nature, as if the vineyards had once been buried by an inland sea, before the Alps emerged in one of our planet’s million-year convulsions. 13.5 percent alcohol. Drink now through 2018. Excellent. About $16, representing Great Value.

Ah, Summer — sea-coast and mountains, or perhaps just lazy weekend afternoons in your own backyard or on a patio or porch or balcony. Wherever you find yourself, you’ll need a glass of a cool, engaging, pretty wine to enjoy with picnic fare or appetizers or just to sip while contemplating all the goodness that life offers. I mean, cripes, we need that now! These Weekend Wine Notes are a bit fuller than usual because this post started off last week as a stand-alone piece but took too long. So now, here it is. All wines mentioned today were samples for review. All rate “Excellent,” even the cheap ones, so there are some real bargains here. Enjoy! And take care of yourselves, please.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________Ascevi Luwa Ronco Superiore Ceròu 2014, Friuli Isonza, Italy. 12.5% alc. 100% tocai friulano grapes. The color is pale gold; collectively, in scent and flavor, the wine conjures a sense of mountain heather and valley meadows, of seaside and hillside; pears, almonds and peaches dominate, along with jasmine and honeysuckle, while a hint of honey leavens the savory-saline quality, though the wine is, as they say, bone-dry. Limestone-seashell minerality adds vividness to the wine’s crystalline clarity and chiming acidity, all borne on a lithe, alluring texture. This rates a big “Wow!” Drink now through 2018 or ’19. Production was 500 cases. Excellent. About $18, marking Great Value.
Imported by Quintessential Wines, Napa, Calif.
______________________________________________________________________________________________Colomé Torrontés 2015, Calchaqui Valley, Salta, Argentina. 13.5% alc. 100% torrontés grapes. Derived from vineyards above 5,000 feet, this pale gold torrontes shimmers with notes of jasmine, lilac and talc, brambly pear and lychee, bee’s-wax and lanolin, then opening to hints of roasted lemon, sage and bay leaf. Crisp and lively on the palate, propelled by tart and taut acidity, the wine features a lovely, lithe, supple texture and a finish that’s suave with a sunny-leafy-figgy character and a deeper tone of grapefruit bitterness. This wonderful complexity on perhaps the best torrontés wine I have tasted has nothing to do with oak. Now through 2017 or ’18. Excellent. About $15, a Remarkable Bargain.
Imported by The Hess Collection Winery, Napa Calif.
____________________________________________________________________________________________Dry Creek Vineyard Wilson Ranch Dry Chenin Blanc 2015, Clarksburg. 13% alc. The Clarksburg AVA
includes portions of Sacramento County, Solano County and Yolo County in the Sacramento Valley. The color is very pale straw-gold; notes of hay and heather, pear and jasmine and an intriguing strain of a dusty garrigue-like meadowy quality lend this wine a distinct summery aspect. Hints of gooseberry and brambly currants, quince and ginger complete the lithe, spare, vibrant package. Always a favorite in our house. Excellent. About $13, representing Terrific value.
__________________________________________________________________________________________FEL Pinot Gris 2015, Anderson Valley, Mendocino County. 14% alc. A pale gold hue for a wine that feels golden; notes of ripe pears and peaches are cloaked in dusty, graphite mineral elements and wreathed with jasmine and lilac; a few moments in the glass produce hints of green apple, gunflint, quince and ginger and fresh-mown hay; tremendous minerality and acidity give this wine unexpected grip and power, aspects that do not, however, subtract from its delicate, leafy, lacy qualities. It seems to glow with sunlight from within. The wine fermented in a 900-gallon French oak tank (30%), small neutral French oak barrels (30%) and stainless steel tanks (40%). Produxction was 1,322 cases. Drink through 2019 to 2020. Excellent. About $25.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________Garofoli Serra del Conte 2014, Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico. 12% alc. The DOC is in the province of Ancona in Italy’s Marches region, close to the Adriatic sea. The color is pale straw; notes of hay and dry grass, spiced pear and peach and fleshy white flowers like gardenias and camellias distinguish the utterly beguiling bouquet, which opens to exotic hints of powdered cloves and coriander. The texture is silken, lithe and supple, driven by crystalline acidity and a lacy limestone mineral quality, all supporting stone-fruit flavors heightened by a note of grapefruit bitterness on the finish. Excellent. About $11 — no kidding! — so Buy It by the Case Right Now.
Dalla Terra Winery Direct, Napa, Calif.
____________________________________________________________________________________________Stinson Vineyards Rosé 2015, Monticello, Virginia. 12.5% alc. 100% mourvèdre grapes. Production was 150 cases. A rose wine of extreme delicacy and elegance, this model offers a pale salmon-peach hue and transporting hints of orange zest and ripe strawberries, melon and sour cherry, with high notes of rose petals and violets. There’s enough limestone minerality and a touch of loamy earthiness in this rosé that resists being merely charming, while its quite dry texture leads to a spice and dried herb finish. Excellent. About $21.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________Tommasi Le Rosse Pinot Grigio 2015, delle Venezia, Italy. 12% alc. This superior pinot grigio starts with a pale gold hue and then offers beguiling notes of jasmine and honeysuckle, peach and pear, dried thyme and lightly smoked almonds, adding a small flourish of greengage and melon on the finish. It’s quite dry, bracing in its savory and saline qualities and animated by a whip-lash of flint and bright acidity. Delectable, with a slightly serious edge and real character. Excellent. About $17, Good Value.
Imported by Vintus LLC, Pleasantville, N.Y.
___________________________________________________________________________________________Troon Vineyard Vermentino Sauvignon Blanc 2014, Applegate Valley, Southern Oregon. 12.5% alc. 80% vermentino, 20% sauvignon blanc. Production was 167 cases. The color is a shimmering pale straw hue; notes of roasted lemons and spiced pears burgeon from the glass, attended by hints of greengage and yellow flowers, dried thyme, heather and meadow grass. The wine displays real grip for a white wine that’s not chardonnay or riesling and reveals remarkable detail and dimension in its permeable layers of dusty limestone and flint minerality, its dense and lithe texture and its nuances of spicy citrus and stone-fruit flavors, all energized by vivid acidity. Quite a performance. Drink through 2018 to 2020. Excellent. About $24.
_________________________________________________________________________________________Two Shepherds Fanucchi Vineyard Trousseau Gris 2014, Russian River Valley, Sonoma County.Winemaker William Allen ferments the white grapes (using native yeast) on the skins for the first five days, imparting a pale copper-smoky topaz hue, and after fermentation ages the wine eight months in neutral oak barrels. Neither a white wine nor a red or rose, this intriguing effort offers notes of spiced pear, Rainier cherries and yellow plums with a ping of red currant at the core; like a rosé from Provence, this wine embodies that ineffable yet characteristic aspect of dusty-damp roof tiles, yet unlike any rosé it features hints of savory and slightly bitter almond skin and a saline line of marsh grass. The finish is almost sherry-like. Another memorable performance. 13.5 percent alcohol. Production was 125 cases. Drink through 2018. Excellent. About $28.
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The Alois Lageder Porer Pinot Grigio 2014, Sudtirol-Alto Adige, is to most pinot grigio wines as a Maserati is to a Ford Focus. Made from Demeter-certified biodynamic vineyards, the wine aged five months in a mixture of large old wooden casks and stainless steel tanks. The result is a pale gold-colored wine that exudes lovely aromas of spiced pear and roasted lemon, straw and heather, acacia and dried thyme, a wine of yellow flowers and yellow fruit, ripe and fleshy. On the palate, this is dry, spare, saline and savory, feeling as if it draws power from the limestone hillside sites where the vineyards lie and chiseled from chalk and flint. For all that, though, the wine does not neglect its complement of juicy, spice-inflected stone-fruit flavors. 12.5 percent alcohol. Drink now through 2017 with fresh oysters, grilled mussels, seafood risottos, many sorts of grilled or roasted fish. Excellent. About $25.

The Foris Vineyard Pinot Gris 2014, Southern Oregon, might be exactly the wine you’re looking for in terms of freshness and immediate appeal and in the realm of price. Great as an aperitif or with — in my recent experience — moderately spicy Chinese stir-fry, the wine displays a light straw-gold color with a pale green tinge and lovely aromas of green apple and pear, a wisp of grapefruit and deeper tones of quince and mango; a few minutes in the glass bring out notes of heather, honeysuckle and lilac. The attractive texture has a pleasing talc-like feeling on the palate, as well as crisp acidity and a touch of limestone in the finish, all at the service of tasty yellow stone-fruit flavors. 13.9 percent alcohol. An uncomplicated but luminous, crystalline wine, fashioned by Foris winemaker Bryan Wilson. Now through the end of 2016. Very Good+. About $14. A local purchase; I paid $13.

The Southern Oregon AVA is about as large as its name implies, encompassing a hair over 2 million acres in the southwest part of the state. While the typical direction is for the TTB to approve smaller entities within larger AVAs, the reverse movement occurred in 2004, when Southern Oregon was approved to include the Rogue Valley and Umpqua Valley AVAs and several sub-AVAs within them.

We tend to know when a wine is great from the first sniff and taste, because it possesses that ineffable yet very real quality called charisma. Renewed sniffing and tasting confirm that assessment, while adding depth and character. These factors hold true whether a wine costs $19 or $350, the range represented in today’s 2015 edition of the annual “50 Great Wines” post. I wouldn’t pay $350 for a bottle of wine — though apparently some people would — but I appreciate the occasional opportunity to encounter one. Of the wines on today’s roster, 18 rate Exceptional and 32 rate Excellent. Often the dividing line between Excellent and Exceptional is fine indeed, with permutations and intimations running silent and deep in each direction, but since my inclination is toward distinctions, rankings and hierarchies — that’s what graduate school will do for you — I always include a rating for each wine reviewed on BTYH. On the other hand, I refuse to employ the famous 100-point system; I would rather leave room for some ambiguity and imagination.

A great wine satisfies every point of interest and essence that we desire from a wine, exuding a feeling of utter completion and comprehension. Each wine accomplishes this purpose in a different way, of course, and to varying degrees, necessitating different responses. Some of these wines I admire, gravely and humbly; others, I adore rather shamelessly. The ultimate test, I think, is that when we drink a bottle of great wine, our conclusion is thus: “I wouldn’t want it to be anything other than this,” a sentiment we might also share with works of art and love affairs.

Today’s roster is presented alphabetically. Where a wine is a blend of grapes, I include the percentages that compose the blend. I also mention the case production for wines released in limited quantities, of which many on this list, not surprisingly, are. I do not include alcohol levels or names of importers or technical, geographical or historical date That sort of information is available in the reviews. These wines were selected from examples that I wrote about during 2015. The preponderance were samples for review, for which I thank the wineries, importers and marketing people who sent them.

If a winery is named Mt. Beautiful, then the wines had better be pretty damned beautiful themselves. No fear! The Mt. Beautiful Pinot Gris 2014, from New Zealand’s North Canterbury region, is as gorgeous as a wine could be while still maintaining the requisite backbone for some healthy structure. This is a fairly new estate, offering its first wines from 2007. The concentration, appropriate for New Zealand, is on white wines plus pinot noir. Winemaker is Sam Weaver. The Mt. Beautiful Pinot Gris 2014, North Canterbury, was made in a combination of old oak barrels and stainless steel. The result is a pale straw-gold wine whose bright aromas of lime peel, jasmine and gardenia, peach and apple skin, straw, heather and mint go beyond seductive to a state of delirious amplitude. This pinot gris is sprightly on the palate, displaying taut, lithe energy and generous proportions in support of delicious spicy stone-fruit flavors with a crisp citrus edge; a pleasingly talc-like texture is riven by a scintillating limestone element. 14.5 percent alcohol. Production was 1,500 cases. Drink this extraordinarily beautiful pinot gris through 2017. Exceptional. About $19, a Raving Great Value.

Here’s a very pleasant wine for sipping while prepping for dinner, which we did over several nights, or just sitting around on the porch or patio — wearing a sweater — or, not to neglect this aspect, for drinking with simple renditions of grilled or seared fish or seafood. The Peter Zemmer Pinot Grigio 2014, Alto Adige-Sudtirol, is more attractive and offers more character than about 90 percent of the pinot grigio wines from northeastern Italy that I receive for review. Made all in stainless steel tanks and allowed to rest for a few months on the lees, that is, the dregs of spent yeast cells, the wine embodies the vibrancy of sheer pale gold hue and the redolence of roasted lemons and spiced pears imbued with hints of almond and almond blossom, quince and ginger, lime peel and limestone. A bracing savory and saline note of sea-breeze and marsh grass is permeated by elements of damp stone, lemon balm and ripe but not overblown lychee and mango; a bit of dried thyme and meadowy grass completes the finish. 13.5 percent alcohol. Drink through 2016. Not to oversell this wine, but it’s really tasty and rinkable. Very Good+. About $16.